My Prolong reconditioning experience

Yes the bulbs need to go last due to arcing. Where on our website do you think this warning would be most helpful? I am guessing the light bulb discharger user guide but would appreciate your feedback to make sue I put it in the best place possible to help future users.

 

S_Keiths is the best out there. He's at Phoenixhybridbatteries.com if you want to buy anything from him

 

I guess I never noticed that there was not a warning. If you follow the step by step instructions, there should be no arcing of the connector. Note the following paragraphs from the Light Bulb Discharger Guide. See the parts I marked in red. Note the sequence of steps. ( Prolong Simple Discharger User Guide – Hybrid Automotive )

The car should be turned off while discharging. While not required, we recommend disconnecting the 12V AUX battery to ensure it is not accidentally discharged by interior lights while the discharge is occurring. The discharge process begins after finishing an initial charge/balance cycle. Disconnect your charger and connect the discharger. Turn on the volt meter by rotating the selection handle either one or two clicks counter clockwise.

To begin discharging, use the recommended wattage light bulb that corresponds to your vehicle and current battery voltage. Install the light bulb into the base to begin the process. When the battery voltage reaches the minimum value for that wattage bulb, unscrew the bulb and replace with the next lower wattage bulb. Repeat this until you reach the desired termination voltage. At that point unscrew the bulb and immediately reconnect your Prolong Battery Charger. If you accidentally discharge too far, it's OK, the batteries are actually very durable and should recover without issue.​

It would seem to me that a prominent warning at the beginning of these instructions might be helpful as a heads up that this sequence is important for protecting the connectors on the cable and the discharger. Might even save a scorched finger.

 

yeah... high voltage is way too scary for me. I think if I were to do this I'd disassemble the pack and charge smaller groups of cells individually

 

Once the harness is installed (this occurs with the orange safety plug out), there’s no interaction with the pack.

Everything is done at the harness pig tail end.

Makes it safe and easy.

 

Steve is a great help, loves to share his wealth of knowledge. But he has his moments LOL.

 

No where in the instructions for use of the Prolong charger did it state to disconnect 12V aux battery. I just completed the process of reconditioning my HV battery and discovered my 12V aux battery (which is BRAND NEW) is now dead. Has this happened to anyone else? Did I miss something?

 

From the overview found at: Battery Reconditioning Overview


You can get away with not disconnecting it if you make sure the doors are all closed so no courtesy lights are on. There are other lights besides the dome lights, so just turning them off may not be enough to eliminate drain on the 12V.

When I've done it, I kept the doors and hatch closed and also put a trickle charger on the 12V to keep it topped off just in case I missed something or just in case it needed topping off.

 

I did ensure not only were all lights were turned off but all the doors stayed closed. I did have hatch open with cargo light turned off for a bit but for the most part I brought cord through rear window with all doors closed. Looks like I'll be jumping it off later today and putting on charge after I take it for a ride.

 

Bummer. I wonder what drained it. The grid charger powers the cooling fan, so something else must have been on, but if you for sure made sure all lights were off, I don't know what it would be.

 

How long was the back hatch open?

There is a reason it drained, just need to figure out the cause.

I have a garage and have all windows down and run the cord through the back window to the charger and Discharger. I do not leave any door or the hatch open.

 

For 1st part had hatch open, lesson learned, got an Optimate 6 to put on battery next time.

 

Old post my my two cents here, there’s a light bulb in the dashboard that shows when a door is open, that should be the culprit if everything else was off, someone may think that little light it’s not enough to drain the battery in the time needed for the process but do you really know what SOC the 12 volts battery was before starting the process, 25, 50, 75, 100%? most of the times battery is not 100% or even close to 100% if the car didn’t came from a long drive before it was parked.